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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22687189">The Gate</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnselaJonla/pseuds/AnselaJonla'>AnselaJonla</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Prompt fills [36]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Original Work</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 09:47:09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>300</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22687189</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnselaJonla/pseuds/AnselaJonla</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>A fic written for a prompt on the r/WritingPrompts subreddit:<br/>[CW] Flash Fiction Challenge - An Iron Gate &amp; A Feather</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Prompt fills [36]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1097823</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Gate</h2></a>
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    <p>The gate is a massive thing, large enough to fit a small ship, set in an even larger fence. The whole thing is made of iron, with the thinnest layer of zinc to protect it from the weather. Patrolled continuously, constantly monitored for signs of a breach, it looms over the land behind it.</p>
<p>Captain Arnmundr Einarsson touches the tattoo on his wrist as he looked at the gate. An intricately detailed outline of a feather, only a third of the barbs were coloured. Each barb a kill, one day it would hopefully match the one on his other wrist.</p>
<p>He touches the bare blade of his knife as he thought of <em>Them</em>. Monstrous creatures from another world, they'd poured through portals over a decade ago. Every corner of the Earth had been affected, but the worst attacks came where belief in <em>Them</em> had persisted. Where the old tales had still been told.</p>
<p>He had been just a child then. He'd fled on his father's fishing boat, him and his sister and his father's dead body floating in the sea until picked up by the British Royal Navy.</p>
<p>Arnmundr had vowed vengeance, and when offered a place on Operation Verja he had jumped at the opportunity. Joining the fleet that patrolled his childhood home's coast, he'd watched as the giant fence was constructed, and killed to defend its builders.</p>
<p>Other nations had caged their portals, wrapping them in iron to stop <em>Them</em> from crossing over. But that wasn't possible here. The portals were too numerous, the enemy too many. So the entire island had been encircled in iron and fire, with a gate to allow small recon vessels through.</p>
<p>One day, Arnmundr hoped, they'd be able to reclaim his home. One day, he hoped, Iceland would belong to humans again.</p>
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